Coca-Cola’s launch of a milk drink in China promises to take the competition for the nation’s soft drink market to a new level. Both Coke and Pepsi are pouring money into China - Pepsi’s current marketing strategy revolves around a music talent competition.
In honour of the two companies’ epic battles around the world, we decided to put together some of our favourite ads.
In 1993, Coke took on the strapline ‘Always Coca-Cola’. The polar bears in these ads are wheeled out every year - they’re almost as much as a feature of December as Santa Claus (allegedly also a Coke invention). Here is one of the latest versions by Berlin Cameron Red Cell, New York.
BBDO New York worked closely with Pepsi for many years, and one of the most classic and controversial (because of the Italian mafia stereotype) ads it released was ‘The Godfather’.
Celebrity endorsement has been a big part of Pepsi’s strategy. Pepsi got its hands on Michael Jackson in 1984 - filming for the subsequent ad was famously interrupted when the singer’s hair caught fire. Since the superstar passed away, the ad has resurfaced across the internet. Here’s another one by BBDO New York.
Coca-Cola has been no slouch when it comes to celebrities either. In China, Yao Ming and Liu Xiang have featured prominently - and the campaign from this year’s Spring Festival is a great example. Showing Liu sharing his ‘first Coke of the year’ with his father, it was backed by an impressive online effort that encouraged Chinese consumers to describe their own ‘first Coke of the year’. Red Lounge Shanghai was the agency.
‘The happiness factory’ by McCann Erickson is the basis of Coke’s current global platform, with a little blue creature saving the day when the last drop of Cola runs out. The campaign has been spun off into films and music tracks.
Pepsi’s Blue Legend mini-movie a few years ago featured across Asia. Featuring nine Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop-stars, the ad spared no expense, with BBDO Taiwan sending the film crew down to Anman, Jordan.
There are plenty more out there - so post with your suggestions.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Six of the best
December 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am
[...] Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory should probably go on the list, but it’s been done already. But Aleksandr Orlov, the Russian meerkat gets our vote. He was introduced at the beginning of this year for comparethemarket.com (a car insurance portal). He became a phenomenon in the UK and ad agency VCCP has also created a Facebook, Twitter and Flickr account for his whole family. [...]